65

The shift in the chime brought Dek awake from crazy and tumultuous dreams. Quetzal dreams where he hunted silently in dim forest shadows mixed with human images, memories of his past, as well as bits of pieces of Kylee through Rocket’s eyes. Then he’d be in Talina’s mother’s kitchen, or some insane Mayan ballcourt in Mexico. Once he was at a military-style graduation ceremony; another time a dark-haired, sloe-eyed young man was saying, “Hey, I don’t want to see you again. I’m with Beth now,” and his heart was breaking as he called, “Bucky? Hey, don’t do this to me!” But the guy only stalked away.

Bucky? Beth? Who the hell?

Something screamed in agony out in the trees.

Dek blinked his eyes open. Crap! Capella’s light was burning red on the undersides of the clouds drifting in from the Gulf. The eastern sky glowed—a rumpled-looking silhouette of black treetops in the distant lowlands marking the horizon.

A pop from the fireplace reminded him of where they were: exposed on weathered bedrock. At the lip of a sheer dropoff into Two Falls River Gorge. The aches in his body—in addition to the bruises and tortured muscles from his river adventures the day before—proved just how unforgiving basalt could be. When he looked at his fingers, they were scabbed, scuffed, and abused from the hard climb. A warm weight on his stomach made him glance down. Talina’s wealth of black hair spilled across his chest; her head lay full on his belly. Dek savored how Tal’s shoulder pressed against his side, and her arm draped across his crotch. The woman had drawn her knees up against his hip.

Okay, maybe sleeping on hard basalt had its positive points. That, or was this just his dreams come true?

The deal had been that they’d sit back-to-back in order to keep watch through the night and toss wood on the fire. After all, given the number of diurnal predators, who knew what kind of nocturnal beasts might come creeping or flying in out of the darkness. Tal’s infrared sight was excellent, and Dek, to his amazement, found that he had night vision in a way he’d never had. But after the climb, they’d been exhausted. Needed the rest. And a fire was safety when they didn’t know the local predators.

So, how had Talina’s head come to be on his stomach? When had he fallen asleep?

He let his memory drift back to the gravel bar the day before. He replayed Talina’s every move as she stripped off her overalls, baring that remarkable body. How the sun had played on her skin as she stood beside the crystalline river and shot him a conspiratorial smile.